RNRL seeks meeting with RIL to secure agreement

Anil Ambani Group company Reliance Natural Resources (RNRL) is reported to have written another letter to Reliance Industries (RIL) to find a way to secure an agreement for supply of gas by the latter. This is for the second time that the company has written to Mukesh Ambani-led RIL in two days.

The company had, according to sources, written a letter to RIL on 23 June seeking time and date for talks on the pact. Meanwhile, RIL has said that it is still evaluating options for future course of action.

RIL president and CEO (Oil and Gas) PMS Prasad who had meetings with Petroleum Ministry officials to discuss under capacity production from the company's KG basin fields said that the company had enough time till 15 July to decide and was evaluating its options.

The Bombay High Court had on 15 June given the two companies a month's time to thrash out an agreement on gas volumes, price, timelines and other commercial details for sourcing fuel form KG basin fields.

The court had further ruled that RIL should honour the commitment it made in the agreement when the family split, in which it had undertaken to supply gas to RNRL. The terms, as per the MoU of the agreement that split the Reliance empire of the late Dhirubhai Ambani between the siblings, called for supply of gas to RNRL based on RIL's bid for NTPC tender.

The price in NTPC tender for the KG basin gas was $2.34 per million British thermal unit (mmBtu) which was 44 per cent lower than government approved rates of $4.20 per mmBtu. In the bitter corporate battle with elder brother Mukesh, Anil Ambani received a major boost with the Bombay High Court on 15 June ordering Mukesh's Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) to supply gas to Anil's RNRL at $2.34 per mmBtu 44 per cent lower than the rates approved by the government.